Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of electrical wire connectors, and more particularly to a universal connector for effecting electrical connection between the individual wires of a bus and either electrical contacts on a printed circuit board module or another bus, or for terminating the bus.
It has long been a conventional design practice in a large variety of product areas, such as article processing, automotive systems, factory automation and robotic systems, to utilize a single motor as the sole source of power for all of the motion control functions of the machine. The motor was typically connected, through the use of clutches, pulleys, belts, gears cams, levers and other mechanical and electro-mechanical devices, to various parts, components, and mechanisms in the machine which required motion control in order to coordinate the various functions of the machine. These devices controlled the timing of the activation of various machine functions according a predetermined sequence, and machine operation was generally satisfactory provided that no adverse condition occurred which would interrupt the normal operational cycle of the machine.
As more sophisticated motion control technology advanced, various machines evolved which were more motion control intensive, and the design trend that developed was the use of more motors and sensors acting independently but in a coordinated fashion in order to achieve higher performance functional capabilities, such as enhances throughput, more accurate motion control so as to minimize such adverse occurrences as jams, slippage and wear on materials, and greater efficiency and user convenience. Thus, the practice developed that some or all of the motion control functions of a machine would be supported by separate motors, and various types of sensors would be appropriately placed int he operational path of the machine to sense a time or conditions responsive to which a particular motor should be activated. Such a product would also include other kinds of electronic boards to support user interface(s) system expansion, interlock switches, etc. This presents a packaging challenge since there is typically little space in the motion control intensive products for these boards.
However, as these systems developed, it became apparent that the wire harnessing systems developed for these advanced products tended to be fairly difficult to deal with from the standpoints of the number of different harnesses required to support the motion control functions of the machines, the inordinate amount of circuit board module space occupied by different types of bus connectors and the difficulty of interconnecting various circuits together. Wiring systems soon became overloaded with wires emanating from a central control point out to the individual motors and sensors, with accompanying disadvantages and problems regarding serviceability, cost effectiveness, reusability and standardization of harnesses and control modules. These problems were compounded by the fact that the motion control industry appeared to be focusing on low volume, custom applications affording high mark-up and therefore little incentive to reduce motion control costs. As a result, existing motion control technology costs have prohibited its use in high volume commercial products.
In recent years, a number of communications based motion control architecture schemes have emerged in an attempt to overcome harnessing challenges and to provide a more flexible and modular environment which will substantially eliminate the various problems mentioned above. The objective of these schemes is to provide an effective communications based architecture for integrating system control elements within a product.